How To Pronounce Words Clearly With A Lisp - 15 Steps

How to Pronounce Words Clearly With a Lisp: 15 Steps
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http://www.wikihow.com/Pronounce-Words-Clearly-With-a-Lisp
How to Pronounce Words Clearly With

a Lisp
Three Parts:
Saying the Sounds Using a Mirror
Practicing Vocalization Exercises
Strengthening the Mouth and Tongue
A lisp is a Functional Speech Disorder (FSD), or difficulty in learning to make

a specific speech sound or sounds. The term lisp itself is a lay term, and is
not something that most speech pathologists use. A lisp is characterized by
difficulty in saying the sounds /s/ and /z/. For example, the words soup and
zebra may sound like thoup and thebra. The most common types of lisp
are the interdental and dental types, also referred to as frontal lisps. The /s/
and /z/ sounds are made either with the tongue protruding between the teeth
(interdental) resulting in a /th/ sound, or the tongue touching the teeth (dental),
resulting in a muffled /th/ sound. Both of these common types of lisps are
considered normal parts of speech development for children, and should not
be seen as unusual for children under the age of 4 . If you have a lisp, here
are some tips for correcting your pronunciation.[1]
Part 1 of 3: Saying the Sounds Using a Mirror
Smile. Looking in the mirror, open your lips like youre smiling. When you begin
saying the sounds, youll want to keep your lips open like this to be able to see
your teeth the whole time.[2]
Close your teeth and line them up. Line up your teeth so that the bottom row
rests just below the top row, touching them lightly. Hold them together like this. If
you have a natural slight over-bite when you smile (many people do) youll need to shift
your bottom jaw forward a little bit to get your teeth in the right position. It may no
longer look like a genuine smile in the mirror, but thats okay.[3]
Get your tongue in the right position. Keep your tongue back away from your
teeth. It should be sort of in the center of your mouth, slightly pulled back and just
behind the upper teeth. You dont want it to be locked to the roof of your mouth,
otherwise the air wont be able to come through to make the sounds.[4]
Practice the sounds. Practice saying /sssss/, as though youre hissing like a
snake. To do this, blow air through your teeth while they are lined up as explained
above, being sure to keep your tongue back away from the teeth. Do this several times,
until it sounds like a clear /s/ sound.
To practice /z/, you keep your teeth and tongue in the same position, but you
turn your motor on as a speech therapist would say. This means you vocalize
a sound in your throat instead of just blowing silent air.[5]
Ask a trusted friend or relative for their feedback. After youve tried this
method, a good way to check and make sure youre making the right sound is to
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ask someone. Ask someone who doesnt speak with a lisp, who will genuinely want to
help and wont make fun. They should be able to tell you if the sounds youre making
sound like clear /s/ and /z/ sounds.
Ask them to make the sounds too, and try to copy what they do. Watch their
mouths and teeth, and try doing the same thing in the mirror.[6]
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Part 2 of 3: Practicing Vocalization Exercises
Start with just the sounds. Youll need to work up to saying the sounds correctly
while speaking naturally. Practice saying just the /ssss/ and /zzzz/ sounds to
yourself, and continue using the mirror and someone else for feedback. The more you
practice, the faster youll be able to say the sounds clearly while speaking sentences.[7]
Increase your speed gradually. For each step in this section, youll want to begin
slowly and once youre comfortable saying the sounds correctly, you can start
doing each step faster. Soon youll be saying the sounds clearly at a natural pace! [8]
Try syllables and words. Practice saying the sounds with syllables first. Try saa,
see, soo, sie, and sor. Then, try zaa, zee, zoo, zie, and zor. Repeat these
gradually and then quickly, trying to maintain the correct sounds for /s/ and /z/.
Next practice words: sun, soup, Sue, sigh, saw, see, sip, soap, silly, seven,
seals, zoo, bizarre, zippers[9]
Practice sentences. Try repeating sentences containing the sounds /s/ and /z/.
For instance, I see a sock, and We saw the store. Here are some more you can
try:
The striped zebra made me sneeze.
I eat spaghetti with a spoon.
He laughs when using scissors.[10]
Repeat tongue twisters. Once youre able to say sentences using clear /s/ and
/z/ sounds pretty easily and quickly, try some tongue twisters:
Sister Suzie sat on the sea shore sewing shirts for sailors.
The shrewd shrew sold Sarah seven silver fish slices.
Keep practicing. Changing how youve been speaking can take quite a bit of
work. Dont give up if you dont see results right away. Practice the techniques for
at least 20 minutes every day. Ask your friends and family for feedback on whether or
not they think you are improving your pronunciation during conversations.
Children in school often participate in speech therapy for months or even years
to improve their lisps. If youre not finding any improvement in a couple of
months, try contacting a speech therapist for more help.
Part 3 of 3: Strengthening the Mouth and Tongue
Use a straw when drinking. Using a straw can help promote oral strength by
strengthening your tongue because you have to keep it pushed back while
drinking. So, get some straws and pop them into your cups, cans, or bottles when
youre getting a drink.
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Blow into a round mouthpiece. Blowing of any kind, whether through an

instrument mouthpiece, whistle, horn, kazoo, etc. helps to strengthen the mouth
area muscles.
You can also blow bubbles. Sure, its for kids, but it can be fun for adults too.
And if you have kids of your own or nieces/nephews, theyll love doing it with
you.[11]
Practice tongue-tip sounds. Say lalalalalalalala without moving your jaw up

and down. Just move the tip of the tongue. Rest and repeat.
Do this with other tip of the tongue sounds such as tatatatatata and
nanananana and dadadadada. Any sounds getting your tongue moving
quickly will help to strengthen it. [12]
Do tongue pops. Suck the tongue up onto the roof of your mouth for a 1-2
seconds and then pop it. Try working up to 25 repetitions of this. Doing these
types of exercises should cause you to gradually feel more control over the use of your
tongue, which will help when youre speaking to avoid making unclear sounds. [13]
Give us 3 minutes of knowledge!

Can you tell us about
High heels?
Telephone
providers?
Mario Kart Wii?
Crafts?
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Tips
Seek help from a speech therapist if you are still having a hard time
forming the sounds clearly, or if after practicing you still speak with a
lisp despite your efforts.
Relax. Many times speech disorders become more obvious when
someone is anxious or nervous. If you lisp by accident while speaking,
try not to become embarrassed. Its a part of who you are, and quite a
few celebrities have had lisps. Its understandable to want to change it,
but changing it can be a slow process and most people arent able to
do it overnight. So be patient and kind to yourself!
Sources and Citations

1. http://speech-language-therapy.com/~speech
/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86:lisp&
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catid=11:admin&Itemid=120
2. http://www.howtogetridofalispfast.com/learn-how-to-get-rid-of-a-lisptoday.html
3. http://heatherspeechtherapy.com/2011/05/correcting-a-frontal-lisp/
10. http://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/speech-therapy-frontal-lisp/
11. http://www.arktherapeutic.com/blog/post/403
Article Info
Categories: Pronunciations
In other languages:
Espaol: pronunciar palabras de forma clara sin cecear, Portugus: Pronunciar
Palavras Sem a "Lngua Presa"
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 69,656 times.
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